Accidentally Wolf (44 page)

“Yes, Chief Thomas but not in the way you are thinking,” he said hesitantly as if realizing whatever he had planned wasn
’
t going to be as easy as he had thought. Y
ay
for me. Throwing the bad guy for a loop was always good. “I came to talk.”

“Now why can
’
t anyone just make an appointment at my office and keep to business hours like polite people,” I grumbled loud enough for him to hear. He was less than a hundred feet away now.

“Of course, let me walk right in to the FBI offices where they are looking for me,” he replied dryly. I could see him better now since he was closer, and, while my night vision was excellent, he
’
d been careful to stay slightly obscured in the shadows.

When he finally came in to full view, I could see he was about my height, maybe an inch or two taller, black shaggy hair, and normal, nonspecific brown eyes. He wasn
’
t bad looking nor was he all that intimidating. In fact he was fairly attractive but not someone who would have stood out to me or stayed in my memory. That had to help in his line of work.

I still couldn
’
t smell him, so he was continuing to mask his scent.

“It would make my job a hell of a lot easier if the bad guys did that.” He got within thirty feet then and that was close enough. “Okay, you can stop.” Any closer and I might not have been able to get a shot off before he could get to me.

“As you wish, Chief Thomas. I am not here as an adversary, merely speaking
as
one shifter to another to explain.”

“See, this is what people tend to forget,” I growled, not liking his placating tone. “I
’
m not just a shifter. You know that or you wouldn
’
t be using my rank. You
’
ve broken the law, and you can
’
t talk me in to ignoring that because we
’
re both part animal.” I went to say his name, like we
’
re trained when trying to reason with criminals. But then I realized I didn
’
t know and I sure as hell wasn
’
t going to use Black Vengeance. “What
’
s your name?”

He paused for a moment. “Let
’
s go with Bob,” he answered with a smirk. “Twice now you
’
ve proved that you
’
re more capable than any others who have hunted me before.”

“Sure,
Bob
.
” I snorted. “So why are you here?”

“To make you understand that not everything is so black and white.” He sighed and wiggled his fingers. “This might take a while. May I lower my hands if I promise no sudden movements?”

“Keep them where I can see them,” I agreed, lowering my gun as well. I wasn
’
t putting it away or flipping the safety on, but yeah, it got tiring to hold a gun up and aiming it for that long.

“Thank you.” He slowly lowered them and rolled his neck. “How old are you? I have trouble gauging since some of us are much older than we seem.”

“A few hundred years for you if my information is right.”
He seemed shocked that I had any information on him. Score one for me.

“Yes it is, but more than a few. I
’
m over six hundred years old. But I look no more than thirty human years.”

“No, no you don
’
t,” I agreed quietly. Would I look twenty-eight for the rest of my life? That actually sounded great. But I
’
d have to ask about that later. “I
’
m a few years under thirty myself.”

“Good, then you were an adult when paranormals came out of the closet, so to speak.”

“I guess if you consider sixteen an adult, sure. I was a freshman in college though so my head was buried so far in to my books I only heard about it a week after it happened.”

“What do you know or remember then?”

“Some guy went on a killing spree New Year
’
s Eve during the whole Y2K thing. They caught him, convicted him, and November 2000, they tried to execute him. But he was a vampire and laughed when the lethal injection didn
’
t work. He made a big show of escaping, making sure all the news crews saw him so there was no way to bury the story.

“After that, all paranormals started showing their faces that they
’
d been here all along so humans didn
’
t freak out and kill all the vampires. Your leaders at the time struck agreements with numerous countries that paranormals were allowed to be treated the same as humans with a few exceptions.” I shrugged. Okay, so what? Even if I hadn
’
t been an adult when it happened, everyone knew
how
it happened.

“That
’
s all you truly know?” he asked, tilting his head and looking at me with confusion like a puppy who doesn
’
t understand a command. “You work for the FBI. How did you never look up the truth?”

“Never occurred to me,” I answered honestly. I was really beginning to hope that either Tristan or Riley would start to notice that I should have been back already since we
’
d agree I
’
d just be going down the street for Taco Bell. “What did it matter how everyone found out? It happened years before I joined the FBI, and what does that have to do with you killing people now?”

“Everything,” he snarled and instantly I raised my gun back up. He rotated his neck, popping it again as he took a deep breath and controlled his features. “Everyone might not have known we existed but there were several human groups who knew of our presence but on a limited scope. They passed down the knowledge and pledge to hunt all paranormals, saving humans from us and send us back to hell.”

“Okay, so there were idiot zealots targeting one group of people. Humans have the same problem. I
’
m still not getting the correlation.”

“At the end of the 90s, one group realized there were a lot fucking more of us than they had thought. We started winning the war for survival and they panicked. They captured the vampire who brought us all out of the dark and shot him up with every drug imaginable. It fried his brain and basically turned him in to the monster of human legends. They set the whole thing up, Chief Thomas.”

“Well that sucks, but again, what does that have to do with you killing humans now?”

“The war is still going on. I am merely a solider fighting for his people. I figured once I came and explained that to you that you
’
d call off the hunt for me.” And here I thought surviving over six hundred years would make him intelligent. Silly me.

“Bullshit,” I growled. “There
’
s a difference between killing zealots who attack you and seeking them out and hunting them down one by one. Did Kevin Michaels attack you in his home?”

“No, but his anti-paranormal propaganda was influencing humans. He used the guise as a man of god to tell people it was okay to kill us outright.”

Now that he was calm again, I lowered my gun. I had a sinking feeling I
’
d be raising it right back up again, but I could play the game that we were just talking. “Did you have proof of that?”

“Yes, but—”

“No, no buts, Bob. If you ha
ve
proof, you turn it over to the authorities. No one wants an all-out war between humans and paranormals. The authorities would have listened. Hell, my division has a tip line where you could have done it
anonymously
and we would have looked in to it. You
’
re just as bad as the zealots if you
’
re taking your beliefs in to your own hands and acting like some damn vigilante. Michaels talking out of his ass didn
’
t mean he should die. He should have rotted in prison with all the other crazy criminals.”

“You can
’
t seriously believe it
’
s just that simple,” he said slowly, eyeing me over as if
I
was the dangerous one here.

“Look, I can
’
t judge how you guys did things before everyone knew you existed. You couldn
’
t just go to the police and say some guy was trying to kill you because you were a werepanther. It was a different world then. This is now. You
can
go to the police for exactly that reason. You took the situation into your own hands and murdered at least two people
that
I know of. You aren
’
t judge, jury, and executioner. My job is to make sure people are safe and any threat
t
o them is locked away.”

“You mean humans,” he sneered. “You protect humans.”

“No, I said
people
and that
’
s what I mean. I don
’
t care if those people turn furry like I do or drink blood because they need it to survive. I protect the American people from any threat to their safety and our way of life. That means you.” I raised my gun again, taking time to aim carefully for his middle, thinking I could at least clip him if he took off faster than I could follow. “Now that you know you can
’
t talk the new werewolf in to sharing your views. What happens next?”

“You try to arrest me, right?” He gave a snort as if he thought that was unlikely. Yeah, I did, too.

“Actually, I can just shoot you,” I answered with a smile. “You confessed to murdering people right in front of me, came to my residence, and I doubt I could beat you in a fight. So, yeah, I
’
m allowed to use any force I deem necessary.”

“And yet you say the laws protect all people,” he sneered in disgust. “You couldn
’
t just shoot a human if they were in my place.”

“Nope, I couldn
’
t,” I agreed. “But then again, a human wouldn
’
t be a
s
hard to catch as you are. And what if I was human? Then I would really have been screwed. And it
’
s not like I caught you stuffing candy in your pocket. You come equipped with deadly weapons in the form of your claws. The police are entitled to treat that the same as a human with a gun. But you can just move faster so forgive us for protecting our own asses and not taking any chances.”

“I
’
ve actually never heard it explained that way.” He drew his eyebrows together in thought. “It makes sense then. Most of us think the authorities can just shoot us on sight if we
’
re accused of any crime.”

“Oh geez,” I groaned. I
’
d have to check in to that. “Nice to know you guys pay attention
to the rules
as well as humans do. Now, let
’
s get down to it. I
’
m tired and hungry. Are you coming in or what?”

“You don
’
t seem to have any handcuffs on you right now, Chief Thomas.” He chuckled, flashing me a toothy grin. There was a flash and a click from behind me and his head snapped in the direction. Shit. I took the shot just as he started to move toward me. He yelped in pain and shifted to full panther form, racing away from me. I fired three more times before I lost visual and the sleek black cat vanished in to the dark. I think I clipped him once more, but I couldn
’
t be sure.

“What the
fuck
were you thinking?” I roared, spinning around on Riley. “Are you insane?”

“I was thinking of distracting the freaky murderer because you didn
’
t have any back up so you could shoot him. That and you
’
d need a picture to pass around if he got away,” he answered as he held up his phone.

“And yet the right answer would have been to
call
for backup when you realized something was wrong and I had my gun pulled on someone! You could have distracted me and gotten me killed, Riley.”

“Oh, shit,” he whispered, his eyes widening with realization. “I didn
’
t think of it that way. I
’
m so sorry, Sera.” That took a lot of wind out of my sails. Riley wasn
’
t trained for this kind of stuff and I had to give him credit for being brave enough to even try to help.

“Did you at least get a good picture?” I asked with a sigh, not wanting to rub in his mistake when he obviously felt bad.

“Yeah, my phone has the same quality as a digital camera,” he mumbled. I holstered my gun and closed the distance, wrapping my arms around him. “I was so scared. Alena made this guy sound like the boogey man, and, when I went to take some trash out to the dumpster and heard part of your conversation, I didn
’
t know what to do. I didn
’
t want you hurt.”